The foundation for the crisis we have today in the North was laid over a long period of time by political office holders from the region who have been shirking their responsibilities: the Governors who never paid attention to education, including those who introduced political Sharia while helping themselves to public treasuries. In some of these states also, secondary schools have in recent past been closed for several months due to disagreement between the authorities and the teachers; in a few others, students are taught under the tree and then you hear about primary school teachers who fail some elementary examination that is meant for primary four pupils!
Situations like the foregoing can only provide fertile grounds for Boko Haram and allied forces and Borno which serves as the epicentre of the insurgency is a classic example. In 2006, while receiving a team of broadcasters to his state, then Governor Ali Modu Sheriff said he was not concerned about the criticism of his administration in the print media because 95 percent of the people in Borno State could not read and write. And perhaps to rub it in, Sheriff added that less than two percent of Borno residents had access to newspapers! Even while the “statistics” reeled out by the governor may be false, the mindset that informed such disclosure is very telling of the kind of leadership that has led us to the current crisis.........
We are at a rather challenging moment in our history and it is one that calls for a multi-partisan leadership which only Major General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), seems to appreciate. In describing the Nyanyan attack as “horrific, heartbreaking, and a cruel act of merciless slaughter”, Buhari on Tuesday called for a broad based, non-partisan coalition to fight the scourge before he added: “The security and stability of Nigeria is inviolable. Our security and stability cannot be conditioned on any ideology or partisan agenda. Every Nigerian reserves the right to his own security, to his own freedom and dignity, and no amount of terrorist blackmail can make us surrender these.”
